Be the Referee: Other Football Changes
September 7, 2017
This week, MHSAA assistant director Mark Uyl discusses a few final football rules in the final of a three-part series on changes in the sport for this fall.
Be The Referee is a series of short messages designed to help educate people on the rules of different sports, to help them better understand the art of officiating, and to recruit officials.
Below is this week's segment – Other Football Rules Changes - Listen
Today in our final segment of a three-part series on the football rules changes for the 2017 season, we’re going to be looking at three items:
• On passing plays, pass interference will no longer be called when the defender is simply face guarding the receiver with no contact.
• In the final two minutes of a half, the team accepting a penalty will now have the option of restarting the game clock with the snap of the ball, rather than the referee’s ready-for-play signal.
• This is the second year of an experiment in Michigan with a 40- second play clock, which starts shortly after a play is over, replacing the 25-second play clock which was always started by the referee marking the ball ready for play.
Past editions
August 31: Pop-Up Onside Kicks - Listen
August 24: Blindside Blocks - Listen
Be the Referee: Disconcerting Acts
October 8, 2020
This week, MHSAA officials coordinator Sam Davis explains a change in football meant to reduce a form of gamesmanship at the line of scrimmage.
Be The Referee is a series of short messages designed to help educate people on the rules of different sports, to help them better understand the art of officiating, and to recruit officials.
Below is this week's segment - Disconcerting Acts - Listen
Among the rules changes in high school football for the 2020-21 school year is an adjustment in the penalty assessed to the defense for disconcerting acts and sounds.
Among the gamesmanship that sometimes takes place near the line of scrimmage at the start of the play, defensive players have been known to make sounds or act in a manner which otherwise might distract an offensive player waiting for the snap signal. Previously, the most egregious of these actions would be penalized 15 yards for unsportsmanlike conduct.
But beginning this year, the disconcerting act foul is a five-yard penalty. The change in the rule actually makes it more likely that this kind of behavior will be flagged, and may eventually lead to a reduction is this type of activity.
Past editions
10/1: Ball Hits Soccer Referee - Listen
9/24: Clocking the Ball from the Shotgun - Listen